Sorry about the wait. Life. Just life getting in the way. Anyway …
Fourth Chapter up! Enjoy!
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The second month working for the FBI was just as exiting, scary and tiring as the first month was, but from different kind of cases and scenarios than what Colby had done. The first was definitely a case that brought back bad memories for Colby from his time in the Army.
There was a case involving Homeland Security performing drills on terrorist attacks (or as they called it, Anti-Terror Drills) across many different venues and high profile places, testing their new Biochem sensors and their responses to the attacks. The agent in charge of the drills was James Grace, and was there on the first drill, where it turned into an actual attack, using the gas Phosgene. Thankfully, everyone who was exposed was ok in the end.
Apparently Homeland had another 10 drills to do in L.A in the next week, and was determined to continue with the drills, otherwise it was showing that they were to 'scared' to continue with keeping places, and people, safe.
Then we met the man in charge of overseeing the drills, Peter Houseman, also with Homeland Security. And even though Don had warned them to place their other exercises on hold, Houseman refused by saying "Sorry. That's not an option." Almost as if he didn't care that people may get hurt if the same people tried another attack again.
Ok, Colby could understand why he didn't want to give up, it was because these exercises and drills were there to help people in Law Enforcement to know what to do if, or possibly when, an attack happens within the L.A area, either in the airports, train stations, harbours, water stations, food supplies, chemical plants or within hospitals. They were there for everyone's safety, but it may not be the best thing to do if a terrorist organisation was out to hurt people within these drills.
Colby and David happened to pull the short straw with Megan and were in charge of going 'Dumpster Diving' or thankfully in this case, just dumping the trash on the floor, hoping to find something, and luckily they did. In the trash can outside the station, there was a dark baseball cap, a dark jacket (the same as what some of the other undercover MTA agents were wearing), a dark rucksack and Gas Mask inside the bag, along with a "Cafe-Latte-to-Go can", which, with Megan taking it from Colby, proceeded to comment on how she 'loves these things', but it had been tampered with, showing both Colby and David, then handing it back to Colby.
"Well, now what?" Colby asked, handing the can back over to Megan, to which Megan replied, "Now, we buy Charlie a coffee" and placing the can into an evidence bag.
A little later when Charlie came into the War Room, he proceeded to tell us how he knew about these coffees, commenting about that half of his students drank them per lecture, (which Colby had to give a smile to that) and then showing everyone in the room how a button on the bottom of the can, starts its own 'Internal Heating System' to keep the drink warm by the water mixing with the quicklime inside. And according to Charlie, 'it is highly exothermic'. His words, not mine. It's still hot though. (See what I did there?).
And Megan, of course, couldn't help but comment on how good a latte it makes. Charlie ended up giving the can over to Megan to look at.
Then on the monitor behind Charlie, he proceeded to show a diagram of the subway car and the gas's 'journey', or it pattern, around the car, showing where the gas was released, using something called a 'Gaussian Plume Dispersion Model'.
During Charlie's diagram, Megan turned around in her chair and gave the latte drink over to Colby, who took it and gave it a quick once over, looking at the bottom, seeing how it works.
Charlie continued to talk about 'Gas Dispersion' and how a gas cloud is made up of many plumes, he was able to find the original release point, which so happened, to be precisely in the centre of the car, which allows for the greatest dispersion of the gas.
Charlie then reminded us that the gas that was used was diluted, and if it was potent, and been released in the same place, people would have died.
Colby then said "Which means this person could have taken lives, but chose not to." Which he saw Charlie nod faintly at his words, as if to confirm what everyone else knew.
"Well, we know he deliberately chose to target an anti-terrorism drill." David commented.
"So we're talking about a high-risk taker with a thrill-seeking disposition." Megan summarised, well, profiled.
"Right, it's like a game to them." Don clarified, probably writing this all down at the same time.
"And most thrill-seekers are adrenaline junkies. So, I'd say our guy is gonna strike again, only this time, he'll need to up the ante." Megan continued.
"We're gonna get ourselves some real casualties." Don finished, making everyone feel slightly more edgy. But to Colby, it almost felt to familiar, almost being back in Afghanistan, waiting for the next terrorist strike to happen, knowing it was coming, but no knowing where or how many it was taking with it.
Don then quickly went to talk again to Houseman about putting the exercises on hold, but again got put down. Don was really trying.
Later on in the day, Colby happened to overheard Don telling Megan in the break room that apparently Charlie and Larry had a 'Final's Competition' of sorts for a 'Minibot Chain Yank and Crank', or something about a small robot pulling a car, which sounded really cool, was happening next Friday. And then Don said the Minibot broke down before it could get over the finish line. Colby gave a quite chuckle to himself on that one. Shame, would have liked to go and see that. I've always loved technology.
Colby quickly made his escape back to the War Room, before they found out he was eavesdropping on their conversation. He sat down at the table with files in front of him. David then came in and sat down on the desk, opposite Colby, also going through more files. Then we had footage of the guy caught on tape of him dumping his gear in the trash bin where we had picked up his stuff earlier.
The guy's name was Roger Holstein, 31, ex-Army Special Forces. Tough, badass basters, but they sure as hell got good results, and are very efficient in their tactics.
"Body art was the tip-off. That tattoo right there?" Colby explained, showing on the screen the tattoo that Holstein had on his lower part of his left shoulder, a skull with swards going through it in a 'X' shape, with a 3-layer ribbon moving down, with the words "MIND", "OVER, "MATTER" within each section of the ribbon. "That means, he's a CT Team Operative."
"CT Team?" Megan asked, looking confused.
"Counter Terror." Colby supplied. "They're soldiers trained to role-play out enemies, then mimic their tactics."
"Including terrorist's simulations." David continued.
"They test the security at military bases and weapons stations by staging mock attacks." Colby clarified, explaining a little more on what they can do.
"And the subway strike?" Don asked.
"Oh, it's right out of their playbook. This guy Holstein? He's been doing the exact same kind of work as a civilian contractor since he was discharged from the Army." Colby replied.
"Their last job was two months ago. His team staged a mock attack on Mirabo Labs, a private chemical facility." David explained.
"What? You think that's where he go the Phosgene?" Don asked.
"Yeah" David replied, with Colby nodding behind him in confirmation.
Megan then asked that if they worked in teams, to which Colby replied "Always". Megan then asked to replay the footage and they then find out that Holstein was working with someone else, by taking orders from an earpiece in his left ear, which meant that there was someone else. And the other guy could possibly be another ex-Army, ex-CT team guy by the name of Glen Nash, another former Special Forces, who also had a Medal of Valour. It also showed that he had training in Psy-Ops, Cyber-Warfare and Covert Operations.
And wow, just wow. Colby though on what he did next. That in 2002, when he was still in the Army, he led a CT Operation, and they penetrated security at a Navel Base and stole a Submarine. And he only had 7 men on his team. Just wow.
Colby and David went to speck to Nash's sister. David started to ask the questions, while Colby walked around looking at the photos that were around the house. There were a few of Nash in his service Uniform.
They asked her when she last saw her brother, which was a couple months ago doing security work. Asked if she knew where he went, saying that they were not that close anymore, to which Colby had to ask why. Her reply was, "Glen's changed."
This led the conversation on to Nash serving in Iraq, to which Colby said that they had already looked at his service record. She then went on to say that her brother had lost men over there, and it had hit him pretty hard, to which Colby replied, "It'll do that", because it did, it hit everyone differently, but it hit most of them hard.
This led her to ask if Colby was there, to which Colby answered, "Afghanistan." And her reply to that was "Then you know." And Colby did. He knew that fact really well, and was a little shocked that she would know that to. Maybe being close to someone who had seen the bad could tell it in others. Maybe.
But in the end, she still didn't know where her brother was, so was not much use there, unfortunately.
When he and David got back to the office, it looked as though Don had a little falling out with Charlie somehow. Don always had this look on his face when he and Charlie fought over something. Colby wasn't sure what it was about, but it could have been something to do with the wedding that their dad, Alan, was organizing in Charlie's backyard. Or it could be over something completely different for all he knew.
Back to the case, Colby had found that Nash had been working as a contractor in Iraq the last year, and the base he was working out of was supposed to be secure, but it wasn't. The place was hit by a suicide bomber, which resulted Nash in losing 2 of his own men.
Apparently this information made Megan's mind start spinning, because she looked straight at a picture of Nash, almost as if she knew from that moment what had set him off. And yeah, losing 2 men on a 'supposedly' secure base was hard to let go.
What Megan thinks in his mind is that the lapses in security he saw out there, he may be seeing here in L.A. and he may be calling attention to the bad security that L.A has by demonstrating it. This Colby couldn't quite get, because how can Nash bring this to Homeland's attention by gassing the subway? Megan thinks that he is trying to take control in a situation now, because he was helpless before.
James Grace from Homeland quickly came through in giving the schedules on the other remaining exercises for us, well for Charlie anyway. He then showed us something he believed we needed to see first. Saying that their department keeps record of all threats against Homeland, and that Nash sent letters and making a lot of noise about how easy it would be to trash Houseman's anti-terror drills.
David and Colby then ran an employment check on Nash's former team, before Mirabo Labs, Holstein, Small and Olerud all worked jobs in construction, home building supply and electronics wholesale. Which Megan didn't understand why Special Forces members would 'happily' work 10-dollars-an hour jobs after what they have done, to which Colby replied, that Special Forces guys are trained to live off the land and make use of what's readily available.
Meaning, that they could turn a convenience store item like a cafe latte can into a chemical bomb. This is where they believed they were able to get a hold of Phosgene gas from the time they were working in the Labs. This also meant that they probably took the other jobs in order to get whatever else they needed at the time.
And all of a sudden, here comes Charlie, running into the office, asking everyone, 'Hey, where's Don?', not even a 'Hi' or 'How are you', which was a very Charlie thing to do at times, asking what he wanted first, and then doing the pleasantries later. Just something else that makes Charlie unique, I guess.
Anyway, what Charlie says is that he believes he may have an answer for Don and the members of Homeland about Nash's possible movements.
After a few minutes, of Charlie writing down his equations on a clear board, and was now firmly in his 'Professor Mode', he went on to say that Nash doesn't just prefer the 'hard targets' but he goes for the hardest. The greatest security challenges. This Charlie had applied it to the 10 remaining exercises and picked out the most likely target for Nash to hit next, which Charlie believed to be the City Hall.
Then Homeland Security office was broken into, when all of this was happening. This was a little bit of a shock for everyone, and everyone rushing out of the door to go and look, with Charlie looking back and forth between the quickly fleeing Agents, looking very confused in Colby's eyes. Well, we're all confused right now, Charlie. Not everyone and everything can be predicted.
Looking around the office, it was quickly shown that Nash never entered the building, but had triggered an alarm instead. So what was Nash's objective when he triggered the alarm? Colby's answer was, 'Well, it brought us all here,' to which Don replied that 'Nash is trained in Cyber Warfare. He hacked into Homeland's system,' and saying that maybe they were the point of triggering the alarm, making Don believed that Nash's purpose was to see what they would do, and that he may be watching them through the security cameras that were in the office, seeing them respond.
"It's counter surveillance." Colby has summarised, everyone now looking up at the camera that was facing them, believing that Nash was on the other side, watching them.
After they got back to the FBI building, they discovered that it was possible that Nash was in fact, building a bomb. So Don and Megan went to speck to Houseman again to stop the exercises, to which he almost easily gave in to them telling him to stop, only that the exercises were postpone until Nash was caught. This went a little to smoothly for Don, who was now a little suspicious from what Colby could tell.
Charlie then had told Don that the targets that Nash were apparently going for now were 'Soft Targets', which did not fit his M.O at all. Meaning they either had the wrong guy, or the wrong targets.
Don was then looking at the security footage of the day before on the break-in on Homeland Security, to see what it was Nash was seeing. And he found something. Nash wasn't watching them, he was watching Houseman, and had even left something on Houseman's laptop to scare him as well. It read 'Over 1900 K.I.A. YOU'RE GONNA BURN'. Then they find out that Houseman has been missing all morning, and no one has seen him.
Colby then told the team that the surveillance they had placed on Nash's sister just showed him going in to his sister's house. They all made a quick retreat to their cars to get over their as quickly as they could. Before they could go in, Nash's sister was making her way back into her house, so Colby and David had to make sure she wasn't in harms' way, and stayed with her while Don, Megan and other FBU Agents stormed the house.
Once they had caught Nash, they soon found out that Nash hadn't even been in the country for the last 4 weeks, but in Mexico in drug rehab. This, making him innocent of everything that had happened. Then Megan got to thinking about who had served Nash up to them on a silver platter, to which Colby replied, "Houseman's number two".
Megan then went on to say that Nash wasn't the only ex-Army guy who had lost men. You couldn't be more right about that Meg if you tried, Colby thought, thinking about the men he had lost from his time in the Army over in Afghanistan. His troops, his men, his buddies, his friends, his brothers in arms.
During this conversation, Don had a phone call, saying that Houseman was just spotted at Homeland Security with James Grace. Once the team had made it over to Homeland, Colby and David stayed on the ground, while Don and Megan went up to the roof, where it was said Houseman and Grace were spotted.
Soon a call came through from Megan that a perimeter was needed around the building, and that they needed Bomb Squad. Megan and Don soon sussed out that it was all a drill, an exercise that Grace had done to make Houseman think again before he did something that may kill may others in the future. The bomb was fake. Grace was quickly arrested.
After the case was over, Colby overheard that both Don and Charlie were attending the wedding that was happening in their backyard. Colby really hoped that Charlie didn't get a date from the wedding, as selfish as that was, Colby couldn't help it.
He was just glad that this case was over. It brought back to many unpleasant memories for Colby, and if his headache was anything to go by, he may have a few nightmares for the next few days.
It was always after the case was over he got the nightmares, never on the case, which Colby was thankful for at times. It was a habit that had stayed with him since being in the Army. He never once had a nightmare out in Afghanistan, but he had them for months when he left there. Almost as if his brain knew he was already living a nightmare, that there was no need for nightmares when he was asleep as well. But Colby never slept deep or long enough in Afghanistan to have nightmares anyway, so that was another thing that worked. He just hoped that the nightmares weren't going to be so bad this time. Just make it quick, and relatively painless, please. And no Humvee-fire-trap dream please. Leave that for a case where there is an explosion.
With that less than pleasant thought in mind, Colby packed up his things, and made his way back home to his 3rd story apartment.
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